Senator Chris Anyanwu has dared former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, to bring forward the “lengthy letter of apology” he claimed she wrote to the military government of the late Gen. Sani Abacha.
Anyanwu was imprisoned from 1995 to 1998 for treason after reporting on a purported failed coup d’état against Abacha’s government. Following the death of Abacha in June 1998, she was released by his successor General Abdulsalam Abubakar on health grounds.
Ohakim had recently alleged while speaking with journalists that Anyanwu apologised to Abacha “and owned up that she told lies in order to sell her magazine.” He also threatened to “publish a copy of that apology for Nigerians to see the type of person she really is.”
Addressing Ohakim’s claims and other comments he made about her autobiography “Bold Leap,” Anyanwu, in a statement said; “One thing to emphasize is that BOLD LEAP is my autobiography, meaning l wrote about myself not lmo State, Imo Government or Governor Ikedi Ohakim. It is about my whole life and my life traverses many places outside Nigeria. Imo State and its toxic politics of the time were merely small chapters to what is a long story. BOLD LEAP is not an Imo story. No. It is not at all.
She further said, “And finally, that bizarre story about a letter to Abacha, (may his soul rest in peace). How does a man of Governor Ikedi’s age and standing in society sit down and conjure up an asinine, egregious lie about someone writing apology to Abacha and the federal government. Is it intelligent to tell tales that are so hair-brained they can make a dog laugh?
“No one could write Abacha or his government and it became Nigeria’s greatest secret. How did it happen that a document that could have provided the propaganda hungry administration its greatest campaign weapon globally got locked up and no one else mentioned it, wrote about it in the numerous books written on that era in these 30 years?
“Except Ohakim!! Where was this letter written; when was it written, by whom and to whom was it given? And how did it happen that it was only lkedi Ohakim that had access to it? And by the way, where was lkedi Ohakim 30 years ago, in the DAYS OF TERROR when people were fighting, dying, escaping and suffering for Democracy? Was he helping the oppressors? There had to have been a relationship with the administration for them to have handed him this ‘dud’.
“Ohakim must explain this; explain what he did for a living at the time and what qualified him to keep Abacha’s secrets. When we get a glimpse into his opaque professional past, then we will appreciate why it is not beyond the realms of possibility for him to weave and fabricate this great lie.”
Anyanwu said she does not know anybody who wrote Abacha.
“And now, I dare Governor Ikedi Ohakim to produce the letter in his possession in court before forensic experts before the eyes of the world,” she continued. “He should remember it was a global story not just local and there were some who knew better. Coming out and telling this joke will make him an international clown.”
“But Let him produce the letter he got from Gen. Abacha and government. Federal Government is a continuum. It should verify the letter in Ohakim’s hand, explain how it manifested and who produced it. Now, the letter writer will be tested for forgery. Let us understand that the games people played in their childhood may not carry them through old age.
“This time, His Excellency will not go on unchallenged. He has claimed to have a letter. He has threatened to publish it. I dare him to bring that letter physically (not publish). Bring it to be tested for forgery. Governor Ohakim has the right to reply any publication about him but he must know that he is to do so within the ambit of the law.”
(Page 11 of Vanguard Newspapers, 20 January, 2025)
